From this it required much effort and attention to
scare them away.
It might have been half an hour, perhaps even an hour, (for in
cast my I could take but imperfect note of time) before I again cast
my eyes upward. What I then saw confounded and amazed me. The sweep of
the pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a natural
consequence, its velocity was also much greater. But what mainly
disturbed me was the idea that had perceptibly descended. I now
observed --with what horror it is needless to say --that its nether
extremity was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot
in length from horn to horn; the horns upward, and the under edge
evidently as keen as that of a razor. Like a razor also, it seemed
massy and heavy, tapering from the edge into a solid and broad
structure above. It was appended to a weighty rod of brass, and the
whole hissed as it swung through the air.
I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me by monkish
ingenuity in torture. My cognizance of the pit had become known to the
inquisitorial agents --the pit whose horrors had been destined for
so bold a recusant as myself --the pit, typical of hell, and
regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all their punishments.
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